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Berlinda vs Bernadette

American parents have registered 55,033 Bernadettes since 1880, against 960 Berlindas. Bernadette is still ahead, with 241 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Berlinda against Bernadette, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Berlinda Bernadette

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Bernadette has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2006, when Berlinda had 6 and Bernadette had 95.

Side by side

  Berlinda Bernadette
Total US births 96055,033
Most in one year 461,494
Babies in 2025 under 5241
Estimated living today 82038,000
Median age today 6161
Peak year 19611958
Best rank 1,666th girls213th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked1,034th
First recorded 19341880
Girls / boys 960 / 054,973 / 60

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Berlinda and Bernadette.